“Titus?” Kylie appeared at his side with her hands on her hips. She was struggling not to laugh, he could see that well enough, but her voice was stern. “Dare I ask where that first olive came from?”
“Not unless you want me to give you the real answer,” he joked as he lobbed another one right at Rochelle. He was actually accurate enough to put one into her shouting mouth. But he didn’t want her to choke. That would have made her the unwelcome center of attention for sure.
“Give me that.” Kylie snatched a handful of olives from his palm and began chucking them at her friends. “I don’t know why I’ve kept hanging out with them. Sometimes it’s okay. They can act like they care. Other times, they can’t even pretend. And tonight they’re unbearable. It’s like they think they’re better than I am!”
Titus snorted. “I got that distinct impression, my dear. Shall we open the gates and run them all out?”
“Can we do that?” Kylie asked with amazement.
Titus shrugged. “I’ll try to get the gate open and then we’ll just sort of herd them that way. It’s at least worth a shot. Don’t you think?”
Kylie suddenly looked determined. “Go for it. I always wanted to run with the bulls in Spain.”
“This is more like a greased pig contest at the local rodeo, but that’s all right.” Titus winked at her and felt as though they were actually in this together. What a wonderful sensation it was.
Chapter Sixteen
“Well that was a total disaster,” Kylie moaned as she stared out across the lighted patio. “I still can’t believe my friends went all primal bitch on me.”
The patio was littered with food. Olives rolled across the uneven surface and slices of prosciutto and cheese spread stuck to the flagstones. Crackers were smashed into bits on the ground and even some of the lounge chairs had smears of cheese on them. It looked a bit like the aftermath of a really crowded house party.
The rustle of a trash bag caused Kylie to turn back toward the sliding glass door. Titus appeared a moment later with two garbage bags in hand. He passed one to her. Kylie took it with a grunt. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate his help. She did. She appreciated everything. But he had started the food fight. Except, how could she blame Titus when her friends had joined in so readily?
“I think your girls were just acting true to their nature.” Titus made the comment in an off-handed way, as though he was just making an observation. “I’ll be honest. You told me once that you don’t actually drink wine. And you don’t really seem like the kind of girl to go all out for a party like this.”
“I’m not.” Kylie spoke almost absently. She couldn’t decide why she had gone to so much trouble tonight. “I don’t know what happened. “This is the first time I’ve ever gone overboard with the food. But I was bored this afternoon and when Rochelle texted me and I remembered at the last second that I’d forgotten our usual meeting night, I panicked. Then I sort of overdid it.”
There was no judgment on his face. She could not begin to tell him how much she appreciated that. She had done enough judging on her own. She didn’t need someone else telling her that she was screwing up her life. And lately, it did seem as though she was screwing it up.
“I went back to the winery today,” Kylie told him. Why was she telling him this? “I wanted to let Joe Turner know I was filing a suit against the paper. I wanted him to know I wasn’t just going to take this thing lying down and pretend I didn’t care.”
Titus made a growling noise in his throat. The sound made her shiver with awareness. She tilted her head as she knelt on the ground to get started picking up the mess. Titus was staring at her with a very serious expression on his handsome face. He was watching her as though there was nothing more important in this whole world than what Kylie Overton was going to say next.
She swallowed against the sudden dryness in her mouth. “He didn’t care. I mean, he didn’t care what I’d done. He was too busy trying to save his own ass. I swear, Hilary must have something on him. I even spoke to that detective guy, Sellers. I showed him the picture in the paper proved I hadn’t been the one to splash the wine on the customer. It shows someone in a dark shirt holding a wine bottle and my uniform has a white dress shirt.”
“But Turner didn’t care?” It wasn’t really a question. It was like Titus had already guessed. “How did Sellers react?”
“He was actually really nice.” This still surprised Kylie. “He told Mr. Turner that this would all be part of his report and that he was going to have a talk with Frederick about giving false statements while under oath. It seems like he believes me and that will go in his report too.”
Titus looked thoughtful. “Which will then be public record and can go in the evidence of for your libel suit as well.”
“Yes.” Kylie sighed. “But the long and short of it is I’m out of a job. There’s no way I can go back there, Titus. How can I? My boss is setting me up to take some kind of fall for him. And I don’t get it. Joe acts like running that place is so complicated. It’s not! And maybe that’s because I don’t have a thing to do with production. I just manage the retail part. I oversee the store and that includes the hospitality room. Dealing with all of those customers and their wants and complaints and making sure tour tickets are sold, which I don’t even have anything to do with once the tickets are sold. That’s someone else’s problem.”
Titus was on the other side of the patio picking up a bunch of olives that had rolled beneath one of her Adirondack loungers. Her whole life seemed to be full of nothing but problems lately. Why did it feel like everything was falling apart?
“You told me once that you felt like you hadn’t really gone anywhere with your life. You had taken a few steps to make sure you could pay your bills and you had sort of stuck with it even though it wasn’t what you’d intended.” Titus stood up and looked at her as though he was trying to see past her skin into her heart so she could bare her soul.
Kylie sighed and reminded herself that her soul wasn’t that hard to see. Not when she spent most of her time wearing her heart on her sleeve. “I do feel that way. I’m just here, in my parents’ house, living day-to-day life as though I have absolutely no direction.”
“So then, maybe this thing with the winery is what you need to push you out of your comfort zone,” he suggested.
Kylie watched him as he plucked her garbage bag from her hand. He headed back inside her house as though he were perfectly at home. She could hear him inside, throwing things away, opening and closing the refrigerator, and then a few moments later he appeared with a tray of crackers and cheese and a couple of beers. The caps were already off the long neck bottles.
Titus sat down and put the tray and the beers on one of her round side tables. Kylie joined him a moment later, trying not to seem too eager to do so. “What about the cheese smears everywhere?”
“We’ll have to hose those off,” Titus decided. “But they aren’t going anywhere and you need a break.”
She did need a break. Kylie licked her lips. She remembered sitting with him just a few nights ago. The night she drank far too much wine. The rest of the night was hazy though. Nothing but the dreams remained in her mind. And for some reason, they were the only thing she could think about right now.
“I had a dream about you the other night,” Kylie murmured as she took a long swig of beer from the bottle.
“Oh?” He relaxed back in his seat. Titus looked completely unconcerned about it. Maybe it was just because he didn’t know what kind of dream it had been.
“Yes.” Kylie licked her lips and drank more liquid bravery. She needed the boost of confidence. If Titus told her that her dream was disgusting or nasty or that there was no way in hell that was going to happen, she was going to be very upset. Devastated. But she didn’t want to think about that right now.
“It was a lovely dream. We were in the jacuzzi. You were kissing me. I was kissing you. And then we moved to the lounge chair and you…” Her voice wa
s getting hoarse. She had to try to remember how to breathe and talk at the same time. “You touched me. You made me… you made me come.”
The word was so unbelievably naughty in its own way. Sure. Kylie could be crass like anyone, but this was different. She was talking about something she had felt deeply even though it hadn’t happened.
He was staring at her. Kylie wasn’t sure how long her mind had been swirling around in circles before she realized. He was staring at her with such heat that he could have scorched the chair in which she sat.
Then his lips parted and his low, sultry voice made her shiver with anticipation. “And did you like it?”
Oh God. She couldn’t lie. Not about this. So, she nodded.
“That’s not enough.” There was a layer of iron in his voice that she could not deny. “You have to give me the words, Kylie.”
The words. They were there on the tip of her tongue. She had only to push them out. “Yes. I liked it. I liked it a lot.”
He stood up and pushed out of his chair so quickly, for a moment, Kylie thought he was leaving. That he would just turn and go and she would never know if he felt like she did. But he didn’t go. He moved toward her instead.
Kylie sucked back a gasp when he plucked the beer from her hand and set it aside. Then he pulled her to her feet. Before she knew what was going to happen next, he kissed her so hard and so possessively on the lips that she thought she might swoon with the excitement.
His kiss was erotic. Lips and tongue and teeth clicking together with total and absolute domination. The gentle teasing kisses of her dreams had been replaced by a man who asked for everything and held nothing back.
Titus put his arms around her body and held her close. He splayed his hands across her back and held her immobile as he plundered her mouth. He nipped at her lips before moving down her body. His tongue trailed down over her jaw and the column of her throat until he could bite the flesh between her shoulder and neck. She shivered and whimpered in response. She was gripping the fabric of his T-shirt in her clenched hands, wishing it was off and his chest was bare.
He moved away for a moment, and when he returned his shirt was just gone, as if he knew what she was thinking a moment before. Kylie let her hands rove his chest. She tentatively stroked his taut skin and felt the hardness of the muscles beneath. He felt so intoxicating that she almost didn’t realize he was taking her shirt off too. It seemed to evaporate. His hands were at her waist, unfastening her cargos and dipping dangerously close to the waistband of her panties. He was teasing her. Promising her something and then retreating.
Kylie wasn’t sure where her bravery came from but she shoved both hands away and pushed her pants and her panties to the flagstones. Her flip flops disappeared and she struggled to step clear of her clothing. She was utterly naked in her backyard and she didn’t care. From the corner of her eye she spotted her bra hanging from one of the chairs and she couldn’t even remember him taking it off.
His hands and lips were everywhere. Sucking at her breasts, teasing and coaxing her nipples into hard points. He sank to his knees in front of her, kissing her belly and making love to her body with his mouth. His powerful arms held her and his hands brought her nothing but pleasure.
Then all at once he stood up and picked her up as well. He was barefoot. His sandals were somewhere in the pile. And as he started to walk toward the jacuzzi, Kylie felt a demanding ache forming between her legs. This was like a dream. A dream coming true this time. And she was not going to second guess it. Not this time.
The water was cool against her skin. The jets were off. There were no bubbles and no spray when Titus eased Kylie into the water. She bounced a bit until she found her footing. He was still outside. She was about to protest when she realized he was taking off his shorts and underwear and she was standing at the perfect height to see every single delicious inch of him on display.
He was hard. God, he was hard. Kylie had never seen a man like him before. She was almost afraid. But she had resolved not to be. Not to give into it at any rate. And when Titus entered the water with her, Kylie reached out to welcome him.
They stood in the center of the jacuzzi, in the foot well, and tangled their water slicked bodies together for one last drugging kiss. His hands were everywhere, molding her to his hard, angular frame and it seemed her curves were perfectly suited to him. Then he spun her around in his grasp and bent her over.
Kylie caught herself on the edge of the hot tub. She felt wanton and sexy. Arching her back, she pushed her bottom in Titus’s direction and reveled in the feel of his hands smoothing over her ass. He moved in closer, until she could feel him against the backs of her legs. Nothing but water between them. The heat of his skin an erotic taste of what was to come.
He entered her slowly, one inch at a time, and the gentleness of the act nearly undid her. He held her hips steady. His right hand moved to the front of her body and found the center of her pleasure between the folds of her sex. The second he touched her, she came hard. Gasping and shivering against him as he wrapped his other arm around her waist and began to move deeply within her body.
The passionate rhythm of their lovemaking was like nothing Kylie had ever experienced before. She felt as though she was free of her body. She twisted her head and met his lips over her shoulder for a long, sensual kiss. He thrust hard into her body. The water moved around them and soon she felt a second climax coming. The rush of it made her knees weak. Had he not held tightly to her body she would have gone under the water. And then he met her, every muscle in his body going taut as he shouted like a beast and poured his seed into her.
Hot. Heavy. Perfect. Kylie thought that if she was going to get a new beginning and a chance to move forward this was one hell of a way to push herself in the right direction.
Chapter Seventeen
Titus had never come inside a woman before and he was beginning to think the erotic power of that act was driving him a bit mad. He had no idea what time it was. There was a clock on Kylie’s bedside table, but he didn’t want to look. He’d lost track of how many times he’d made love to her. She was insatiable. But then again, so was he.
Rolling onto his side, Titus cupped his body around Kylie’s and watched her sleep. He didn’t traditionally need a lot of sleep. A few hours at most. But Kylie wasn’t a shifter. She was human. And right now, she was curled on her side with her sooty lashes a smudge against each of her cheeks and a little smile on her lips. Her breathing was deep and even.
Titus gently stroked his index finger down her cheek. She was so perfect. He’d never felt like this about anyone before in his life. He didn’t know if it was because she was his first. Not his first lover, but the first woman he had ever fully consummated a relationship with. But regardless of why, Titus was now absolutely convinced she was the one, which was why he had to figure out a way to get her to go with him when he left Branson.
Kylie made a soft noise and turned toward him. She buried her face against his chest and her breath tickled his skin. He kissed her again. Her forehead, her cheeks, her shoulder, anything to wake her up and get her to kiss him back. He knew he should let her sleep, but there was a part of him that was far too enamored with this woman to waste a single second in sleep that could be used for something else.
“Again?” Kylie yawned and nuzzled his chest with her nose. “I think you’ve broken some record, Titus. Men aren’t supposed to be able to have sex that many times in this short a time. Unless you’re secretly a porn star.”
Titus laughed. “Not a porn star. And I’m pretty sure a lot of that is fake. I’m just a little special.”
“Special?” That word seemed to wake her up a bit. She rolled onto her back and blinked a few times as though she were trying to get her eyes to stay open. The only light in the room came from the moonlight spilling through her curtains and it painted her in beautiful shades of ethereal blue and white. “What sort of special are we talking about here? And don’t start telling me it’s b
ecause you’re God’s gift to women. I’ve heard that song and dance before.”
This could potentially spoil everything, but for some reason Titus felt like it was the right thing to do. She needed to know the truth about him. She was his mate. She was perfect for him. The woman was even sterile. There could be no better match for a man like Titus than a woman like Kylie.
“Remember how we were talking about medical conditions?” Titus began slowly. He gently kissed her ear. He knew he was distracting her and should stop. But he couldn’t make himself stop touching her. “You told me that you had a medical condition that made you sterile.”
“A lack of equipment now, yes,” she said absently while tilting her head to give him better access to her neck. “And you said you had a medical condition. It’s Hypertrichosis. Right?”
“Yes. My family carries that gene.” Titus was both surprised and gratified to think she had been researching him a bit. “We can talk about how you found that out later.”
“It’s the stuff with your family back in Montana and the stupid stuff about Hilary saying that you’re a murderous werewolf. I just sort of guessed that the Hypertrichosis was in your family. Hilary said that her sister was dating some guy named Holbrook when she died. She thinks it was you. I guess someone else was arrested and then let him go without a conviction for the murder. That’s why Hilary is so crazy determined to solve this case.”
It was the equivalent of having cold water thrown in his face. Titus propped his body on his elbow and stared down at her. This was a moment even more awkward than trying to tell her that he was a wolf shifter. Damn Hilary Allenwood and her sister. They never got their facts straight.
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